So you wanna move to Hawaii? I don’t blame you. We just completed our 3rd move to the islands and I swear its our last. This time however was a little different from our last two moves as we moved totally on our own, without any military or federal help. That means this time, was all on us. The cost, the organizing, the not-forgetting-that-important-thing-you-need-to-do thing. And as we finish up the craziness of the move, I thought I would try and document our process while it’s still very fresh in my mind, how to move to Hawaii.
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How to move your stuff to Hawaii
This is a biggie. How are you going to get all your things to Hawaii? Depending on where you are moving from it can get pretty pricy. For us it came down to two options: use full service movers (like we have before) or move yourself using pod shipping containers. This time, we decided to go the more DIY route and use pod containers that we would pack up ourselves. I looked into a couple of options including PODS and U-Pack. We ended up choosing U-Pack (and used their ReloCubes) and the reasons are simple.
- They had a more affordable quote than PODS, by a couple thousands dollars!
- They would deliver faster than PODS
Two pretty strong pros in my book.
Reserve the ReloCubes
Reserving the cubes was easy. No money required upfront but you do need to supply a CC number to make the reservation. You should plan to reserve the cubes months in advance. As the time got closer to the move, my reservation became more detailed with the schedule of the whole process, including dropoff, time to load, pickup, and estimated time of transit.
I initially reserved two cubes but as we began packing up the house I quickly realized that we might need a third. I called up U-Pack a couple days before they were delivering the cubes, and added one more to my quote. We were lucky they had an additional one available because we definitely needed it. And the cost to add on one more wasn’t outrageous, so I still felt like I was getting a deal.
I highly recommend reserving the extra cube if you think you might need it. If you don’t need it, you don’t have to pay for it. But if you discover you do need it while your loading, there may be extra charges to deliver another or worse, there might not even be one available.
ReloCube delivery and packing
The cubes were delivered with ease, by a very nice man with a flatbed truck and a forklift. Three cubes took up one side of a driveway. We immediately began loading them and were surprised with how much fit. But like I said before, we definitely needed the third.
Note: You do need to get your own locks for the containers. Each container needs two locks. We got these Abus Combination Locks which are admittedly more expensive than some other options but considering how much value we have inside of these containers, we felt that it was worth it. And you can just reuse them to secure other valuables when you’re done moving.
It took us a day and a half to fully pack up three cubes, and once they were locked up I scheduled for them to be picked up. I think its typically a next day thing depending on their schedule. And before I knew it, everything was off to Hawaii! U-Pack has a nice dashboard that updates you where your cubes are and shows you an estimated delivery window.
All-in-all a relatively easy way to coordinate a move. If you’re willing to invest the sweat equity to DIY it, you’ll save some big $$.
ReloCube delivery and unpacking
It took about 3 weeks for our ReloCubes to make it from the East Coast to Oahu. Which aligned well with when we were flying to the island ourselves. Once in Hawaii, I was then able to schedule the delivery of our cubes. This proved to be a little more challenging than on the mainland, as they only have one delivery truck for the cubes that services the whole island. So even though our cubes were on island, we weren’t able to get them for a few days. No biggie though, just take a deep breath and remind yourself, hey, I’m in Hawaii!
When our cubes were delivered I was amazed that they were able to place all three in my driveway that has a bit of an incline. I was happy about this as it seemed a better option then having them by the curb, but driver delivering the cubes will ultimately decided what is safest depending on your situation.
Next we got to unloading, which proved to be faster then loading but just as exhausting. We have an awesome neighbor (there are many in Hawaii) that helped us out and we also decided to hire a moving service to help move in a few of the heavier items.
Get help with your move
The company I reached out to very much last minute was You Move Me Honolulu. While we had unloaded most items from the cubes ourselves, there were still a few heavier items and pieces of furniture that we wanted some help with. I called them literally the day before I needed them (don’t recommend this) and they were able to fit me it! I seriously thought I was just out of luck but they came through with a great quote for two movers for two hours. It was exactly the kind of help I needed.
The movers arrived on time and were quick with their work. After they finished moving the items we needed help with, they offered to put together my daughters loft bed! What?! Not required with the move, so this was definitely above and beyond. 5 Stars for You Move Me Honolulu.
How to move your vehicle to Hawaii
5 years ago when we moved from Hawaii to the east coast, we had one vehicle moved for us and one we had to move on our own. At that time I used a company called Coastal Auto Shipping to coordinate the move. You can try to do this yourself, I however felt that the money was worth it to have the pros organize things. I decided to use Coastal Auto Shipping again as it was such a smooth process the first time.
If you are coming from the east coast like me, you’ll need to get your vehicle across the US first and then on a shipping vessel to Hawaii. So there are a few parts to this journey. Coastal Auto Shipping does all the coordinating and keeps you informed along the way. In my case, it involved meeting up with the truck driver contracted to drive my car cross county, and handing over the car and keys.
You do need to do a little prep work before hand, take any belongings out of your car and do a basic cleaning inside and out, they will inspect that before they accept your vehicle.
I met the driver at an empty church parking lot (as the truck would not be able to fit down my street) and he did a quick inspection of my car. Then I handed over my keys and he handed me some paperwork. Done!
How to move your pets to Hawaii
This is a doozy, although not quite as cumbersome as a few years ago. The timeline of all the required items has been reduced but you still need to be proactive in order not to stress about it. Hawaii has some pretty strict regulations regarding moving pets to the island and you have to follow guidelines established by Hawaii Department of Agriculture.
How to avoid quarantine for your pet
You can find basically all the information you need here. For me, reading through this has always been confusing and we’ve done it multiple times with different pets. Here are some of the main things you’ll need to keep track of:
- Titer blood test to check for rabies antibodies (received by HDOA at least 30 days before arrival to Hawaii)
- Last two rabies certificates signed in ink by a vet
- Heath certificate (done 14 days by a vet before arrival to Hawaii)
There are specific timelines for everything as well as needing certain documents signed in ink by your vet. So the name of the game here is starting as early with the process as possible. For instance, when we sent our dog’s blood work in for the titer test, he actually failed the first time because his antibodies were too low. This was due to the fact that even though his 3-year rabies vaccination was current, it didn’t allow him to pass the threshold set for antibodies for travel to Hawaii. (side note: did you know there is no difference in strength of vaccine in a 1-year and 3-year rabies vaccine?!)
So we needed to have the vet give him a booster shot in order to pass the titer. That added more than a month to our timeline: getting the vaccine, waiting 3 weeks for the blood test and then sending the test to the lab that took another few weeks.
Biggest tip: Start the process early, even earlier then you think you should.
Flying your pet to Hawaii
Another fun thing to coordinate. Different airlines have different restrictions on when and where they can fly your pet. There are also restrictions on type and size of kennel. When we moved from Hawaii to the Mainland almost 5 years ago, we used Hawaiian Airlines and had a good experience. So we booked our pup with them again. We were able to book him on the same flight we were going on and the process to do so is relatively easy. They actually still had my prior booking information which made things even easier.
Dropping your pet off for the flight
Be prepared to arrive up to four hours before your flight to check your pet in. The airline will explain all the documentation you’ll need, and most likely you’ve already prepared it for the quarantine process for your pet. Because our flight was in the AM, coming from the east coast, we had to drop our dog off by 4:30AM. Talk about a long day for him and for us.
Checking him in with Hawaiian Airlines went smooth but took some time to process the paperwork and weigh and measure the kennel. Once everything is good to go you pay for the flight right then and there. The price is based on the size and weight of the kennel (with the pet) and the distance of your flight, so our flight from the east coast with the largest size kennel they accept, was not cheap.
Picking him up on the other side of the flight was actually much faster, but finding the place to pick him up proved challenging as Google Maps kept taking us to another spot at the airport. Here is a screenshot of the location for pickup. If you are squared away on all your quarantine paperwork, it will be super easy to pick up your pet.
So are you still dreaming about a move to Hawaii?
I hope I didn’t scare you away, but now that you’ve made it this far, are you ready for your move to Hawaii? Or at least thinking more about the possibility? Its true, its a lot of work and preparation, but it my opinion totally worth it. There are of course more aspects of the move but I thought these were the top-level most important. Let me know what you think in the comments. Anything I missed in this post about how to move to Hawaii?
Until next time, Aloha!
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